Broadway star Ben Platt, who recently
came out gay in the video for his single “Ease My Mind,” praised
Ellen DeGeneres for paving the way for other LGBT celebrities to come
out.
In the video for “Ease My Mind”
from Platt's album Sing To Me Instead, Platt shares a kiss
with out actor Charlie Carver.
He later told PEOPLE Magazine
that he's been out since he was 12.
“That's a very new thing for me,”
the 25-year-old Platt told DeGeneres during an appearance on her
daytime talk show. “I’ve never had the opportunity, in my work
or in my art, to discuss my sexuality or my relationships, so to have
an opportunity to do that through something personal and through my
piece of work has been wonderful.”
“I am very inspired by you, because
in the way that you discuss your sexuality and your relationships, it
became part of the art,” Platt continued. “[It’s] part of what
makes you so funny, and so fantastic, and not in replace of. That was
just really inspiring to me.”
Platt added that he hopes one day
coming out doesn't have to be a “giant announcement.”
“Hopefully, we're past the time where
it has to be this whole giant announcement and it can just be part of
who you are,” he
said.
“That's what it should be,”
DeGeneres answered. “It should just be like, 'Oh, we happen to
know that that person is gay,' and that should be it.”
Platt has appeared in Broadway
productions of The Music Man, The Book of Mormon, and
Dear Evan Hansen, for which he won a Tony. His film credits
include Pitch Perfect, Pitch Perfect 2, and Ricki
and the Flash. He'll appear in director Ryan Murphy's upcoming
Netflix series The Politician.